What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[Libertad]

I'm increasingly convinced that part of the problem with Trump himself might be dementia/ alzheimers.

Thank you doctor.

 

[CRI]

I'm increasingly convinced that part of the problem with Trump himself might be dementia/ alzheimers.

It's possible, but even if so, that doesn't apply to everyone in his administration, or all the GOP legislators in the US Congress and statehouses who either actively enable this policies (and often stand to gain personally/financially from them) or at the very least are complicit in them.

 

[bimble]

As the article i linked to says "Am I going to diagnose him with anything? Of course not.. But I will say that since Mr. Trump has been a public figure for nearly 40 years, we can objectively analyze his spontaneous speech and quantify any changes over time.."
He wasn't always like this, he's 70, I don't think it's unethical to look for reasonable explanations for his seemingly irrational behaviour.

 

[CrabbedOne]

"I think what Trump has is a genuine instinctive empathy rather than sympathy with US voters"

Looking at the rest of your post, I think you meant 'insight into" rather than "empathy"? And while we're at it, could "playful" possibly be replaced with 'vicious' or 'mean/vindictive'
Just asking

...
It is also no different with an aggressively domineering psychopath (aka bully). Bullies operate by exploiting a power differential. It can be real or perceived, and either social or physical. To achieve their predatory ends, they seek to evoke feelings of shame, frustration, terror or fear. Their attacks are informed by their ability to sense the emotional vulnerabilities of their victims — to feel them and to know how they can be intimidated or twisted, provoked or incited.

Psychopaths can have rich emotional lives. As narcissists, they strive for love, admiration, and self-indulgent gratification. As predators, they are aroused by the hunt and the suffering of their prey. They may obtain pleasure in seeing others shamed and may find gratification in an opponent’s misery. It is thought that because they are emotionally hyporeactive, they seek excitement and stimulation. It takes more for them to feel alive, and so it makes sense that they would feed off the emotions of others.
...

Link.

Cognitively it seems to be all the same mechanism that are involved in empathy. You feel the emotional state it just does not necessarily lead to pro-social behaviour empathy tends to be associated with. A lot of successful businessmen have this quality while falling short on some psychopathic qualities. Being able to sniff out and manipulate group dynamics while being cold to the experience of empathy and just moving to further their own ends. Even benevolent leaders sometimes have to pick who to fuck over.

I think "playful" is correct with Trump but with him being an overgrown twelve year old playground bully this does involve capricious acts of childish cruelty that he seems unable to resist. His business career is littered with petty incidents and he's no different as POTUS. The reckless stupidity of firing Comey in such a cowardly and humiliating way is all of a piece. He's not really an adult he's a dysfunctional Alpha-Boy. You can get away with this if you are the wealthy owner of an essentially feudal privately owned family company and he has. The Oval Office puts it on public display. His supporters appear to vicariously enjoy this "unfiltered" quality but it's an absurdly dangerous office to award such a stunted critter.

 

[CRI]

Speaking of statehouses, it's important not to just focus on what's happening in the Whitehouse or even the US Congress, but what's happening in states. That's where the gerrymandering and acts to curb voting rights of poor people, ex offenders, minority ethnic communities, etc. are happening.

Redistricting, voter suppression and decisions not to replace faulty voting machines in areas that vote heavily for the Democratic Party probably swung the electoral college numbers to give Trump the win. This also shifted state legislatures from Red to Blue and Republicans are riding hard to push agendas that mirror Trump's at a state level.

My niece lives in the 'Show Me State' which is politically divided between Democratic voting, ethnically diverse large cities like St Louis and vast, isolated rural areas, almost exclusively white, where Fundamentalist Christianity and Trump style Republicanism hold sway.

For those interested, this article shows how those tensions play out in the legislature. In this case, the GOP majority ramming through their agenda regardless.
Missouri lawmakers target St. Louis' minimum wage hike on hectic last day of session

Some of the measures the Republican dominated MO legislated agreed include:

• To ban cities from raising the minimum wage (targeting Dem voting areas and minority ethnic communities, also where the cost of living is higher)
• Not to end lobbyist gifts to public office holders.
• For stiffer penalties for crimes against cops and a raft of measures giving them more power to do as they please (some may remember the Ferguson riots - this is a direct response to police brutality and collusion with right wing militia there.)
• Killed a bill that would have set up a fund to compensate people living near an atomic bomb production site.
• Approved measures making it even harder to access abortion.

 

[CrabbedOne]

In NYT Chinese Rappers Take Aim at American Antimissile System in South Korea

Just when a warbling Trump-Xi-Kushner love ballad would have been appropriate. Sad!

 

[CrabbedOne]

In TDS Mural of saintly pope kissing devilish Trump appears in Rome

"The Good Forgives the Evil."

 

[J Ed]

Thank you doctor.

Trump's more deranged liberal detractors resemble the object of their ire more every day. Long term political, cultural and historical context has been entirely replaced by a series of heroes and villains like a reality TV programme and for a lot of characters whether they are a hero or a villain depends on what they have done this episode. A week ago the Obama appointee, and Republican, Comey was a Putin-Trump stooge and now he is a woke liberal crusader for Hillar- I mean justice.

Like Trump, they are full throttle in favour or against of whatever the last thing they've been told was.

 

[J.C.Decaux]

Donald Trump is gonna be doin summit really stoopid next week.

He's gonna hook up with the Saudi deputy crown prince who wants the good ol USofA's backing for their confrontation with Iran.

Maybe they want the C.I.A to fund the Baluchis to stir up anti-govt insurgency in Iran.


Also, whilst Trump is out in the ME anyone else deluded enough to think that he might tell that apartheid regeime Israel to stop building illegal settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank?

.

 

[bimble]

Also, whilst Trump is out in the ME anyone else deluded enough to think that he might tell that apartheid regeime Israel to stop building illegal settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank?

err.. no. He's still hoping to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and put on a show up on Masada instead.

 

[teqniq]

err.. no. He's still hoping to move the US embassy to Jerusalem...

I thought that plan had been shelved? Saw stuff on Twitter to that effect, which obviously doesn't necessarily make it true.

*Googles*

conflicting reports, what a surprise.

Trump ‘backflips on embassy move’

Trump Admin Still Considering Moving U.S Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

 

[bimble]

Ye its a long mess, the embassy moving one, he's just the first president for a long time to even raise it as a thing again.
Jerusalem Embassy Act - Wikipedia

 

[CRI]

Uncovering More Trump Ties To Mobsters And Shadowy Oligarchs
A Trump Business Partner Threatens to Reveal a Vast Network of Murky Relationships

Richard Behar, a veteran investigative reporter and now Forbes magazine’s contributing editor of investigations, pursued facts in a little-noticed report last month in The Wall Street Journal. The Journal told of a threat by longtime Trump associate Felix Sater, a twice-convicted felon, to expose negative information about Kazakhstan-born oligarch Tevfik Arif and his “past relationship with President Trump and the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

This could be interesting, and all the more reason the Trump Administration will do something dramatic soon in hopes of drawing attention away from it. Action >>>>> Reaction.

 

[CRI]

One for the Tweeterers
UnsureDonaldTrump (@UnsureTrump) on Twitter

 

[J Ed]

One for the Tweeterers
UnsureDonaldTrump (@UnsureTrump) on Twitter

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Good god could these posts be more boring

 

[existentialist]

Good god could these posts be more boring

Perhaps the subtleties of Trump's overweening certitude are lost on you in the first place...?

 

[elbows]

As the article i linked to says "Am I going to diagnose him with anything? Of course not.. But I will say that since Mr. Trump has been a public figure for nearly 40 years, we can objectively analyze his spontaneous speech and quantify any changes over time.."
He wasn't always like this, he's 70, I don't think it's unethical to look for reasonable explanations for his seemingly irrational behaviour.

I look no further than narcissistic personality disorder. Not that these disorder definitions necessarily represent distinct diseases, as opposed to sets of common symptoms that may or may not have common root causes and treatment options.

 

[elbows]

His idiotic threat tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes of their conversation had me in fits of laughter - what a fuckwit, Trump is going to get fried alive at some point for sure.

 

[J Ed]

I wonder if Louise Mensch posts on here

 

[MightyTibberton]

FACT CHECK: Did Donald Trump Engage the 'Russian Law Firm of the Year'?

 

[teqniq]

His idiotic threat tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes of their conversation had me in fits of laughter - what a fuckwit, Trump is going to get fried alive at some point for sure.

People are speculating again that he has dementia. One of the reasons given is that the only person who might need to fear the existence of tapes is Trump himself.

 

[MightyTibberton]

His idiotic threat tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes of their conversation had me in fits of laughter - what a fuckwit, Trump is going to get fried alive at some point for sure.

It'll be interesting to see how he behaves while he's abroad. Will he be allowed to Tweet? Is that a security risk? He will no doubt make several awful speeches, but how will he talk to his people back home?

He's off on Friday to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and The Vatican - what, no Buddhism?!?! - so far, but it's rumoured he might pop in on Putin at some neutral venue - Iceland , Finland or Slovenia (birthplace of FLOTUS) are mentioned on Wikipedia.

 

[CRI]

I look no further than narcissistic personality disorder. Not that these disorder definitions necessarily represent distinct diseases, as opposed to sets of common symptoms that may or may not have common root causes and treatment options.

Good point. It's impossible to diagnose from the "armchair," but he's pretty consistently displayed features of NPD throughout his professional career, stretching back to the 80's. If there had been a more recent marked change, this might suggest some form of age related dementia.

 

[CRI]

His idiotic threat tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes of their conversation had me in fits of laughter - what a fuckwit, Trump is going to get fried alive at some point for sure.

True, but don't underestimate the determination of those around him to cover his ass. He's had people covering his ass all his life.

 

[Libertad]

Arse.

 

[J Ed]

Girls, drink...

 

[CRI]

Trump admitted obstructing justice on national TV. The impeachment process should be in motion. But . . . crickets.

In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump said, “When I decided to [fire Comey], I said to myself, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.”

Let’s put aside the fact that the FBI’s focus on possible collusion by Trump and Russian officials began in the summer of 2016 (well before the election); the real story here is that Trump is acknowledging that the Russia investigation was the key factor in his decision to fire Comey. That’s a clear admission that the president of the United States actively sought to interfere in a criminal inquiry and thus obstruct justice. That this investigation is one that touches directly on Trump’s actions makes it that much worse, but even if it didn’t presidents simply cannot seek to stop the FBI from conducting a criminal inquiry. Even were this not an indictable crime, it is certainly grounds for impeachment.

And, remember twice this week, he posted tweets threatening federal witnesses - Comey and Yates.

In nonbizarro America, Congress would be in the process of drafting articles of impeachment against him. Instead, gutless and enfeebled congressional Republicans can’t muster up the political will to push for a nonpartisan, independent investigation of Trump’s Russia connections. They won’t even subpoena Trump’s tax records, which would shed important light on his financial connections to Russia. Instead, from alleged moderate Susan Collinsto libertarian Rand Paul and chief water carriers Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, Republicans seem intent on doing nothing as Trump degrades and diminishes America.

Over the next several days, the cable news networks will feature wall-to-wall talking heads parsing the president’s latest statements. The White House press secretary will head to the briefing room and once again try to turn the sow’s ear of this presidency into a silk purse. Members of Congress will be renewing calls for an independent investigation of Trump, seeking to block one or expressing their crocodile-tear “concerns.”

The conveyor belt of routinized outrage, analysis, and enabling will continue.

 

[CRI]

Arse.

He's American, so it's "ass."

Not

 

[teqniq]

No, it's 'arse'.

 

[Libertad]

He's American, so it's "ass."

Not

You have presumed that I was referring to Trump.